Now this is more like it. It’s been a tumultuous decade for Disney
since the turn of the century and the end of what is coming to be called the “Second
Disney Golden Age.” Since 2000, Disney
films have been largely hit-or-miss, releasing plenty of very good works (The Emperor’s New Groove, Princess and the Frog,Wreck-It Ralph), but also a fair number of
lesser-caliber films (Brother Bear, Home On The Range, Treasure Planet). I think
part of the issues plaguing a number of these films was that they represented
Disney’s efforts to move out of the musical-style princess fairy-tales that
they’ve become synonymous with, in an effort to have more variety to counter
the explosion of success Pixar and Dreamworks were experiencing during this
time. As a result, many of their
projects over the past 13 years have felt a little schizophrenic, like the company
has been trying to do too much too quickly.
With their latest entry into the canon, however, it looks like the
studio has now firmly set their sights on returning to their “roots,” and if
that is indeed the case, Frozen is a
solid, albeit incomplete, step in that direction.

This time around, the story centers
around two princesses, Elsa and Anna, daughters of the king and queen of
Arendelle. Through a brisk but
well-paced opening montage, we learn that Elsa, the older daughter and heir to
the throne, was born with the ability to create and manipulate ice. While playing with her sister years before,
though, she accidentally injured Anna with her power. In order to keep Anna safe,
Elsa and her parents decide to wipe Anna’s memory of her sister’s abilities,
and Elsa soon locks herself away completely, refusing to play with her sister
for years on end, even after their parents are tragically killed in a
shipwreck. This entire opening is effectively
built around one of the movie’s signature song numbers, “Do You Want To Build A
Snowman?”

Elsa is forced to end this
self-imposed isolation a few years later when she comes of age and has to open
the gates of the palace to visiting foreign dignitaries, once of whom wastes no
time in introducing himself to the audience as Herr Evil McHeinous. The only other side character here of note is Hans, a rote clone of every Disney prince every created ever, for whom Anna,
desperate for pretty much any kind of affection after years of forced isolation,
falls head-over-heels (of course). Their
instant engagement creates a rift between Anna and her sister, who finally releases
all her pent-up emotions and, in an immense display of her very X-Men-esque
power, throws the kingdom into perpetual winter and seals herself away inside a
massive ice fortress halfway up the mountain.
This segment features the show’s other main number, “Let It Go,” easily
the best show-stopper in a Disney film we’ve had in years, giving Idina Menzel
the first chance she’s had to really show off her pipes on the big screen since
Rent.

With the dignitaries and the
regular citizens in danger of both freezing and starving, Anna immediately
takes it upon herself to find her sister and get her to lift the curse. During her trip through the mountains, she
meets a young ice-seller named Kristoff, his reindeer Sven, and a talking snowman
created by Elsa named Olaf (voiced by Book
of Mormon’s own Josh Gad). As they
battle the elements, other not-so-friendly snow creatures, and sinister forces
back in Arendelle, Anna’s devotion to her sister is put to the test as the dangerous consequences of wiping her memory become more and more evident.

In many aspects, Frozen is less of a direct throwback to
the Golden Age films, and more of a spiritual successor to Disney’s other recent
CGI princess/musical mashup Tangled. Both are efforts to revive the Golden Age
Fairy Tale formula, but in updated, 21st-century ways, with
stronger, more active female characters, more pop-esque soundtracks, and
touches of Shrek-style self-aware
parody thrown into the mix for those disillusioned with said fairy tale classics. I’m all for updating a tried-and-true formula
whenever it starts to age, and in my opinion, Frozen succeeds at this far, far better than Tangled did. Not to say that
I didn’t enjoy Tangled, I did, but it
was palpably trying to be a somewhat-serious version of Shrek, right down to the bar-room side characters swiped wholesale from
Shrek 2. The characters in Frozen, conversely, feel much more like their own unique creations. Elsa and Anna are both deliberate breaks with the more traditional princess stereotype, but it's never in an in-your-face way- the film merely presents them as their own people, two individuals both ill-suited to lives of standing still and looking regal. Kristoff is also a fun side character, whose nonchalant acceptance of all he sees (even talking snowmen) makes for a few good laughs. Even the talking snowman has some great
moments, including two of the funniest lines I have ever heard in a Disney film
(and they even come up with a pretty creative reason for having him around). There is romance, obviously, but it's downplayed- Kristoff and Hans never rise above side characters. The focus here is strictly on the sisters. It’s fascinating (and indeed encouraging) to
see a Disney film with a focus on relationships between siblings as opposed to opposite-sex
love interests, and I sincerely hope we get more of this in their next project.

Another part of Tangled that never sat well with me was the soundtrack, which
stretched itself thin trying to include, by my count, four different genres of
music (Guitar Pop, Broadway Classic, The Soft Love Ballad, and Barroom Comedy Romp). As a result, each song felt like
a perfunctory, check-list-mandated distraction, a screeching halt in the middle
of an otherwise perfectly good story with perfectly functional characters. To be fair, this issue is only halfway solved
in Frozen- most of the songs are
stuffed into the first half of the movie, and only about half of them feel like organic parts of the orchestral soundtrack (which, all on its own, is excellent), with the others feeling just as
out-of place as those in Tangled. However, even when they distract, they’re still
all-around better songs- I’ve already given “Snowman” and “Let It Go” their
dues, and “Frozen Heart” and “For The First Time In Forever” deserve mention as well. All four of these tunes have been in my head ever since I left the theater. I wish they’d spread the vocal local love
around a bit more evenly, and gone for a more cohesive sound as a whole. I'd have loved to see the "Let It Go" and "Forever" themes brought back once or twice more, or that the sisters had gotten their own unique duo at the very end. Thankfully, the rest of the movie is so well done that harping on that feels like very
determined nit-picking.

I’m still irked by the continued
decline of traditional hand-drawn animation (at least, within the US),
especially since it used to be Disney’s strong suit, but as a fan of any form
of animation period, it would be remiss of me to not mention that this is a
very, very beautiful movie. It looks
like the whole story is taking place inside a crystal ball. And it’s not all white either-the animators succeed in bringing in some wonderful rushes of color at just the right moments- the red glow of a sunset, the sharp purple of Elsa's cloak or the green of Anna's on a white mountainside, or the sharp, clear blue of Elsa's post transformation, "I am the Ice Queen" dress. It's some of the best CGI animation we've yet gotten from Disney, good enough to rival many of the better Pixar works.

I’m deliberately bouncing around
going into more details about the plot at this point, which is frustrating,
because while it’s easily the best part about the movie, and what makes it the
first Disney film to truly rise above the company’s own princess “standard,”
bringing it up would necessitate spoiling, well, everything, and like any movie
that executes its twists properly, Frozen
deserves to be seen sans spoilers. Yeah, it’s that good. Perhaps I'll do a follow-up reflection on the movie in a few months, after the insanity of Oscar season dies down. With any luck, Frozen will be the first Disney film
to beat out a Pixar work for Best Animated Feature at the Oscars (Monsters University was good, but not
great), and I would not be surprised at all if “Let It Go” also manages to top “Fare
Thee Well” for Best Original Song.
Definitely go out and see this one as soon as possible.